There is a movement toward using minimally invasive approaches for treating conditions or diseases. Because they can be delivered in an unexpanded configuration, self-expanding devices may be useful to provide a minimally invasive way to maintain, open, or dilate bodily structures such as veins, arteries, ureters, urethras, hollow-body organs, nasal passages, sinus cavities, and the like. These self-expanding devices may serve a number of therapeutic functions, and may be used to release one or more drugs to a target location. Furthermore, self-expanding devices may be designed to degrade over time. For example, self-expanding devices may be used to provide anatomical support to one or more sinus openings or ostia following functional endoscopic sinus surgery.
In order to provide a self-expanding device to an anatomical location, generally it first must be reduced to an unexpanded configuration. There may be problems, however, with crimping a self-expanding device to an unexpanded configuration. These problems may arise from the geometry of the self-expanding device, from maintaining the sterility of the device, or from a number of other sources. Thus it may be useful to provide devices to crimp a self-expanding device to an unexpanded configuration.